Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Vote 26 was restructured in 2020 following the formation of the Government. Responsibility for the previous Vote programmes for higher education and science were transferred to the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Responsibility for first level, second level and early years education remained with the renamed Department of Education.

The appropriation account for Vote 26 - Education records gross expenditure of €8.6 billion in 2020. This was up 4.3% year-on-year relative to the comparable programme in 2019. In 2020, the largest element of spending was for the pay and pensions of current and former teachers and other school staff, amounting to €6.72 billion in total. Payments related to the provision of school buildings and extensions and other educational infrastructure totalled €848 million in 2020. This included €65 million in payments related to public-private partnership provision of schools. Expenditure on school transport totalled just under €225 million.

On the receipts side, appropriations-in-aid of the Vote amounted to €355 million in 2020. The majority of these receipts are pension-related contributions from current education employees. It should be noted that employee contributions from employees who are members of the single public service pension scheme, recruited since January 2013, are remitted directly to Vote 12. For 2020, the surplus to be surrendered from Vote 26 was just under €138 million. This resulted from net underspending across the Vote subheads. I issued a clear audit opinion for the appropriation account for 2020.

In my annual report for 2018, I presented a report on the purchase between 2016 and 2018 of three high-value sites for school developments in Dublin city. The three sites in question were the former Rehab premises at Roslyn Park in Sandymount; the former greyhound racing stadium site in Harold's Cross; and buildings owned by the former Dublin Institute of Technology located in Cathal Brugha Street and Marlborough Street. The three sites were bought for a combined total of just over €67 million. Our focus was in establishing whether a well-defined business case was in place and how the Department of Education ensured value for money was achieved for the very substantial prices paid for the sites.

In each case, it was noted that the sites acquired did not meet the Department's own guidelines for minimum site area for development of schools. In practice, given the challenges of developing schools in established urban areas, the Department was planning to maximise the potential of the sites, for example by locating both a primary and a post-primary school on the larger sites and by allowing for use of multistorey buildings. The report recommended that the Department should review its parameters for the size of sites required for schools to allow for more intensive development of sites in restricted areas. The Accounting Officer has provided additional information on how the sites have been utilised since the report was published in September 2019 and on progress being made to develop permanent school premises and facilities on these valuable sites.

The Department of Education has overall responsibility for management of the nation's schools estate, which comprises almost 4,000 premises and land serving a student population of around 950,000. This property represents an accumulated investment by taxpayers of many billions of euro. In my annual report for 2019, I sought to outline the Department’s arrangements for monitoring the condition of school properties, funding of maintenance and refurbishment and protection of the State's financial interest in those properties.

Recommendations in the report include the conduct of a survey to assess the condition of schools nationwide in a consistent manner to facilitate strategic targeting of resources; the development of guidance and good practice information to assist schools in their maintenance responsibilities; the implementation of legal agreements where appropriate to protect the State's interest in the schools estate; and refinements in accounting practice. I am glad to report that all of the recommendations were accepted by the Department. The Accounting Officer has provided an update on progress made in implementing the recommendations since the publication of the report in September 2020.